The Undoing
by lerathegreat
Summary: This is a story about a girl that studied at Hogwarts during the Marauders' era. Valery comes from a family that is believed to be pure-blooded and she is able to perform some special kind of magic. All her life Valery suffers from the fact that her mother has chosen the path of a Death Eater. There will be a lot of Sirius/OC in the future. And my English can be very bad at times.
1. Chapter 1

Hi, everyone! This is my first attempt to write fanfiction. The idea came to my mind when I started to listen to the audiobooks on Harry Potter to improve my English-listening skills. Nobody knew it would come to this... The first couple of chapters are already written, it took me less than an hour, I think, so let's hope I'll update regularly.

I don't owe anything, except my OC. The title is the song by Interpol, but it was just the first thing that came to my mind. It will somehow correlate with the plot, I suppose, but there is no big meaning there.

I haven't reread HP series for 3 or 4 years, so I'm sorry for any mistakes or inaccuracy. I may also have changed some things and data.

It was expected to be a Serius/OC fanfic, but it is becoming something more complex and a major Voldemort-connected plot is on my mind now.

And the last thing (if you are still reading this…) – I'm Russian, so forgive me if my English is not good enough. I hope writing here will help me improve it.

Chapter 1

_"Surprise sometimes_

_Will come around"_

That was a crucial moment for me. Nothing seemed as important as the old pointy hat and the decision it was about to make. I had been waiting for that moment since the day I could say the word "wizard" or "Hogwarts". But I hadn't been just waiting as other children in the magic world usually do, not in the excited mommy-when-do-I-finally-get-the-letter way. For me it was almost a question of life and death. I feared the first day in Hogwarts. No. I feared this exact wardrobe item - the Sorting Hat that had been resting upon my little brown-haired head. "Oh my God, this thing is probably reading my mind!". My hands were shaking and my blood was pumping in my temples. It knows all my fears. It listens to my every thought. It reads me like an open book. It knows everything about my parents… But who doesn't, anyway? You don't have to be a magical hat to read The Daily Prophet. If it knows all about them, there is no way it would send me anywhere, but…

_"Gryffindor!"_

Yeah, of course, it would send me to Slytherin… Wait. What? Why is the red-golden table cheering? Are they looking at me? Are they waving at me? Why did Professor Dumbledore just wink at me? I probably had been sitting at the chair for too long, because Professor McGonagall took me by the hand, congratulated me and waved at the second table where I was supposed to sit for 7 years from now. Shaking at my feet, I went to an empty place beside a boy with a messy hair. "James Potter!" – the boy gave me his hand, smiling widely at me. – "I think my mother knows your aunt! The both like to come at the Flourish and Blotts on weekends". "Yes, I even met your mother once...". She was a nice woman, as far as I remembered. "Valery Winterton". I felt a little bit ashamed every time I had to speak my second name out loud, but James didn't seem to be bothered with it at all. His smile just became wider and he offered to pour me some pumpkin juice. I tried to look at my plate and not seem so amazed by the Hat's choice. Considering my family history, my only chance had been Slytherin (with a slight possibility of Ravenclaw) and I couldn't understand why the Hat chose Gryffindor instead. Wasn't they supposed to be the opposites? Shouldn't I be there my parents belonged? In my nightmares I studied how to turn myself into a snake and I was pretty successfull at it. But as for my dreams and wishes, I studied at Ravenclow as my aunt always thought I would be. At the thought of my aunt I became a little more excited. I wanted her to know about this evening so badly that if it hadn't been for the closed doors and the quiet of the Great Hall, I would probably run to send her an owl right away. She was great. She raised me in a way my parents never could. My mother was furious when she realized that I wasn't going to follow my parents' steps – on the opposite, I was determined to become a good person. Maybe, I would never be as good as my aunt is, but I could at least try. "If my mother won't stand in my way". I twisted about at my seat at the thought. She would be so angry when she founded out what house I had been sorted to.

"Malfoy, Lucious!"

Oh… I almost forgot about that boy. My mother once tried to make his family interact with ours somehow, hoping that we would marry one day, connecting two of the most respectful wizard bloodlines together. It was a usual procedure for our family. Only 3 or 4 wizards hadn't agree to an arranged wedding for the past 200 years or so. When we were 6 years old, Lucious tried to give me a dead mouse as a present – not sure if it was a sign of affection or a desire to get rid of me, but I was certain not to speak to him ever again.

"Slytherin!"

Of course, what else would it be? I sighed. We were only 11 years old, but it was already obvious what Malfoy would become. And I would be dead if I found out that people had labeled me the same way. "Dark magic, black wizards, pure evil…" – that was the usual whispers around my family. My aunt took her muggle husband's name, so it wasn't that bad for her. She also attended the magic school in France, not in England – and that also made her life easier. My uncle and she tried to move with me in France, but my mother didn't allow to. She could have appeared only once in a couple of months to check on me, but she was my mother after all… That's what people usually told me, at least.

"Truce, Adriana!"

It took a second for The Hat to send the girl to Ravenclaw.

"Crouch, Bartemius!"

I heard a laugh at the right side where James was sitting. "Who would name their child…". "The Minister of Magic, Bartemius Crouch, named his son after himself, actually". The respond was said in a very firm manner and it sounded a little as the voice belonged to a girl of our age. "Slytherin!". "I didn't expect the Minister's son to go to Slytherin…" – I murmured to myself. "It is not that bad. Every house allows you to receive great education and an intelligent wizard can…". I decided to fix my gaze back at the scene, not listening to that red-haired girl who thought she was smarter than everyone around. But James seemed to be intrigued – he didn't tear his eyes from the girl minutes after she had finished her speech. The girl's name was Lily Evans, by the way. We had been at the Hogwarts Express together. "A muggle-born witch. But she must have read a lot of books about us" – I thought. I could easily put a person anywhere in the magic hierarchy only by casting a look at them. That was the only thing my mother tried to teach me to do. She considered it to be very useful. "Never try to befriend a muggle – in a while it would become dangerous". I wouldn't listen to her. My uncle was a muggle and he was way better than many pure-blooded wizards I knew.

"Bertram, Aubrey!"

Another muggle-born. The boy looked so scared I almost felt sorry for him. Even the sight of candles hanging in the air made him shiver. The boy was send to Hufflepuff.

"Remus, Lupin!

That one boy took the Hat more time than the others. Even longer than I did. When I look at the High table, I was sure Dumbledore was going to stand from his seat, but the moment before he would, the Hat shouted with utmost confidence: "Gryffindor!".

Mulciber, Avery, Snape – all to Slytherin (that was a fruitful year for them); Peter Pettigrew – Gryffindor; Cumberbatch (was it even a real name?) – Ravenclaw; Brown – Hufflepuff and so on. My eyelids were getting heavier as the procedure was coming to an end.

"Regulus, Black!"

This name made me shiver. It only could mean that somehow Blacks were connected to the nonsense things my mother was into – all that pure-blood talks and plans to make a perfect wizard nation that would rule the world. I must have heard the surname coming from her mouth.

"Slytherin!"

Yes. That proved my theory.

"Sirius, Black!"

Another Black? Namesakes? Twins? They actually look alike, they must be related...

"Gryffindor!" – the cry of the Hat almost shocked me. I must have misheard it. No, the boy definitely was heading towards us. He even took a seat across me at the table.

"Why don't they do it in the alphabetical order? I always thought…" – a red-haired girl's voice appeared again. "Always thought?" – I interrupted her emphasizing "always". The girl had been aware of magic for what… half a month? Her face turned red and then pale. That was an unpleasant thing to say. I became angry with myself. I needed to make it up somehow. "I'm sorry… I just didn't think anyone of us had thought about such things before tonight". I gave her an awkward smile and added without thinking: "Look, your plate has refilled itself! Have you seen something like that? There will be chocolate frogs at the end of the meal, you should try one as you may not had a chance before". Oh, well, that was even worse. It seemed as I was trying to point out something I didn't really care about. Or did I? Anyway, now I just wished this to be over. Sirius Black – the boy that I was sure had to go to the snakes, as I called Slytherins by myself – looked at me for several seconds and then turned to Lily. "It must have been the poltergeist, Peeves, messing with the papers" – he said. "I heard Professors discussing that he had been trying to ruin the night". "Thank God" – I thought. No more awkward silence. But he wasn't saying it to help me – he tried to get Lily out of the situation. It was my first dinner at school and I couldn't even behave appropriately! I felt so sad that I didn't feel like writing to my aunt anymore. All I wanted was to go to my bed. Or to Slytherin. They would certainly appreciate my stupidish remarks.

The long night ended in the girl's bedroom. Besides Lily and me, there were three girls named Marlene, Jane and Angelina. I didn't feel comfortable around them. They all seemed so girly-like and sociable. I wasn't really a fan of girly games, dresses and all that. I was more of a book-worm – that's why I hoped they would send me to Ravenclaw. And also, sometimes I would say unpleasant things to people, as I was very critical and skeptical of everything I saw. And I was only eleven. Thy say I am a lot like my father in that. But, I suppose, when you see and hear as much as I had, you become older and even cynical long before your peers do.


	2. Chapter 2

The Christmas holidays were ahead - my favorite time of a year. I had been at Hogwarts for quite a while by that time. I got used to it rather quickly. If it hadn't been for my aunt, I wouldn't want to leave the school even for a single day. I was very attached to my aunt and uncle. When I was little, I didn't like to play with children, I didn't like to play at all. I waited for my uncle to come from work and then he would tell me stories and news that he and his colleges discussed. So I was a little worried by the prospect of living with children with no chance of talking to adults every evening. Surprisingly, but I did make some friends. Most of them were from Ravenclaw. They seemed more mature than other students. I didn't hang out with the Gryffindors much. James was the only one who talked to me every day. It just so happened that we got along that well. It turned out that his mother and my aunt had many things in common when it came to raising children: we liked same books, same stories, same famous wizards and many other things. Also, I was way too serious and he was, on the contrary, too childish. So we balanced each other in a way. But it wasn't that easy to be friends with James Potter – even in our first year he was beyond popular. All the first-year students wanted to become friends with him. But he wasn't paying much attention to his popularity. He spent his free time with whoever he wanted, but most of the time it were Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. Actually, he would prefer the company of Lily Evans, but she quickly became the most popular girl in our year – too busy to waste her time on some noisy boy. Remus was very nice. Sometimes we would sit together at Transfiguration or Charms. These were our favourite classes. I wish I could sit with him at the Defense against the Dark Arts, but Sirius wouldn't let us. He thought that such a promising boy as Remus shouldn't sit with a girl when it comes to such a serious subject. He once said girls were good only in Herbology. That pissed off both me and Lily and at the next class of Charms we made his favourite red-golden scarf fly around the classroom. He chased it for a while by the sound of our laugh, but then waved to Peter who began to chase it making things around him drop. It surprised me how such young boys as Sirius and James could take under control someone else so easily. But Peter didn't seem to bother with the fact that they used him most of the time. He liked being around them. And so did I. If I had to choose from all the children in my year – I would choose them to hang out with. But hanging out wasn't my thing. As all the students walked at the territory of the castle covered with snow, I sat in the library reading another scientific book. A couple of Ravenclaws I knew asked me to give them a book to read on muggle sciences. Sometimes I wished I could have gone to an ordinary muggle school. I had to make up for so much knowledge I wasn't given here, but my aunt really helped me sending me books that children of my age read at muggle schools. That was not a thing I would be ashamed of, but some people supposed I should have been..

As I turned a page of "Soaring Through the Universe" I heard a chuckle. "Lucius". I didn't say it aloud. I preferred to make it look like I didn't notice him. What was he doing in the library? He won't stay here for long, anyway. "Look at this… What an interesting book! Boys?". He came close to me and snatched the book out of my hands. I wasn't going to do anything about it. Not here. The school had rules and I didn´t want any problems. No matter how tempting the thought of hitting him in the head with the book was, I restrained myself. "Well, Valery... Oh, doesn't it sound nice? Well, Val... Well-well, Val…". I waited for him to say something more informative. "How is your first year in Hogwarts going? I heard you haven't been getting along with the girls from Gryffindor that well. Isn't it because of Lily Evans? She is not our type, you know". The way he emphasized the word type made me want to hit him again. The thing my mother would say. Not the thing I would agree with. "I don't think there is our type. I don't separate people like that". "Oh, you'd better do. Didn't your mom teach you?". "Don't talk about my mother". "Yes, I heard she doesn't really care about you. That is why you ended up at this Gryffyndor… Not a place someone I would marry when I grow up would study at". All his contrived maturity vanished when he said it. I laughed him at the face. "I wouldn't even get close to you if it were my choice. Even some muggles are more interesting than you. Don't you think it is sad? A muggle-born is almost like a squib in the eyes of people in our families, but yet they do…". I didn't finish the sentence. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin appeared in front of us. Remus looked disappointed, but Sirius face was unreadable. They heard me saying this. "Boys, that's not what you…" Ok, there was no point in going further explaining. They knew about my mother. If I didn't have a problem with crying I would definitely burst out in tears. I didn't want it to sound that way. I didn't want to sound like my mother, but, I suppose, some things had already been planted in my head. She didn´t need to spend a lot of time with me to teach me how to deal with people like her. I knew that any Slytherin would be offended if compared to a muggleborn, but Gryffindors weren´t used to such conversations and topics. They preferred to ignore such topics. But what should I do now, when James heard me discussing muggles with Malfoy? Not only discussing, but mocking them somehow. It all made be too upset to say anything to Potter. I grabbed my book and began pacing away as quickly as I could. That definitely wasn't a nice beginning of the Christmas holidays.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next morning I was less talkative than usual that could only meant that I didn't say a single word. The Gryffindor girls discussed their holiday plans like that was the only thing that matter not only for the whole school, but for the whole world. As I tried to bury my head into the pillow, their voices appeared from different corners of the dormitory: "My parents want to take me to Switzerland this year", "Oh, I've been there, it's very nice", "My father lives in Edinburgh, so I'll visit him". "What about you, Valery?". Oh, so they knew I wasn't sleeping. I had to tear my head from the pillow and regretted it the exact moment. I wasn't an early bird at all. "What about me?". "Where do your parents go for holiday usually? What do they do, by the way? I think I've heard about Wintertons somewhere...". That was the worst question imaginable for anyone to ask me. "Yes, Valery, you never tell us about yourself and it's been almost five months since we met!" - Jane said cheerfully and sat on my bed. Why do they have to be so nice? If they hadn't been so friendly to me, I could have just rush out of the bedroom. Or quickly change the topic as I did with the Ravenclaws. They weren't half as curious as these girls were. I looked at Susan and Mary with begging expression. They must know what I felt. Susan just rounded her eyes and spread her arms in a helpless gesture while Mary was looking at me with an apologetic expression. It seems like I will have to sort this out myself. "Well, my mother doesn´t really have a permanent job. She travels a lot. Sometimes she takes me with her, but not often, really. But last year I was in Italy!" It sounded more exciting than it was. "I read some horrible things happened there last Christmas! The Death Eaters..." Something made Lily stop speaking. That wasn´t one of the usual topics for discussion in girls´ dormitories. "Yes, terrible things." It seemed as nobody wanted to think or talk about it. I didn´t want the silence to be broken with another question, so I went on: "This year I'll probably stay with my aunt and uncle. I told you about them. My uncle is a TV-journalist". "Does he work in this square thing that muggles have in their houses?". For some reason Susan whispered it and it made me laugh and relax a little. Susan's family lived in a village full of wizards, almost none of them had a TV-set. "Yes, you could say that". "Lily, Jane, do you have such things in your houses too?".

I sighed with relief. No more awkward questions. I finally got up to check whether I had packed everything. I also needed to say goodbye to my friends from another houses. But the last thing I was determined to do was the most unpleasant one. I had to talk to Remus and Sirius.

I found Remus alone in the library five hours before the train departure. He was reading a book about magical creatures. "Hey... Is it good?" - I said sheepishly. Remus was upset. I could say that without looking him in the eyes, only judging by his pose. "Not really¨. ¨So why are you reading it?" Silence. "Remus, I wanted to apologize for the things you heard me saying. I was so angry with Lucius that I wanted him to feel bad, or embarrassed, I just thought it was the best thing to say to offend him." "It's not only him you could have offended". "But I knew there was nobody else there! You two appeared from nowhere! Remus, listen, please… I know what you must think" I took some time to take a breath. "But I'm not like her." He finally looked up. Remus watched me very intensely for a few seconds while I tried to collect my thoughts and get enough nerve to continue. He knows. Yes, he definitely understood what I was talking about. "The thing I fear the most is being like her. Becoming one of them…" I could feel my eyes filling with tears. Remus gave me a reassuring smile. "Valery, there is only a bunch of them. Only madmen can do such things. And you are not one of them and never will". His smile became wider. I wiped a tear and smiled shyly in return.

"Remus, there is one more thing. Can you talk to Sirius? I don't think he would understand it as easily as you have." "He will, don't worry about that. Maybe he'll just need a little more time". "Well, he'd better take it in faster than by the end of the 7th year". It was an innocent joke, but I should have been more careful and not to make such a prediction. All wizards know that our thoughts can sometimes become true, or almost true.

I was on my way out of the library when I ran into James on one of the moving stairs. He was alone and it was the only time I didn't see a smile on his face. He nodded at me and was about to pass me by, but I caught his hand. "James, wait, please, I want to talk to you." It wasn't like me – to stop someone for a conversation almost roughly, but I had no choice. Hogwars Express leaves in three hours. He sighed and turned to look at me. "It's about what Sirius and Remus had told you yesterday". "How do you know they did?". "That wasn't difficult to deduce by the way you tried to ignore me seconds ago". "I didn't.". Wow, I hadn't seen him so serious even once for the four months we had been studying together. "Listen, there is something very important I want to talk with you about".

It took me two hours to tell him the story. By the end of my speech I was merely crying and James was holding my hand. It was the first time I told someone everything from the beginning. I even told him things that I eavesdropped when I was little or what my elder brother had told me about. I thought it would make James scared, but it seemed to have scared me. We were sitting on a bench near the library. I was shaking and James tried to calm me down by saying all this usual phrases my aunt would tell me: "Everything's going to be fine; you have nothing to be ashamed of; it's okay" and many more. All the things you are suppose to tell when people you care about are in pain. Surprisingly, it helped. I almost stopped shaking and looked at James with gratitude. A sound of steps interrupted me when I was going to thank him. Sirius Black came to the library looking for James, as I could see from the fact that he avoided to meet me in the eyes. My body tensed and James squeezed my hand. "Sirius, I think we should tell you something". "It's not like I came here to listen stories. You are going to miss the train". "You can talk to him on the train" - I whispered and immediately realized that I didn't want Sirius to know all the things I had just told James. "But not the whole story." James watched me for a few seconds and then nodded. "I understand. Remus and I can enlighten him". Sirius shifted from one foot to another waiting for us to stand up. He wished I hadn't been there, I'm sure. It made me feel even worse than I did when I finished my story. I jumped from the bench, muttered ¨goodbye¨ to both of them and headed towards the Common Room. I heard James saying "Valery, wait!", but Sirius whispered something to him and a few seconds later they opened the library's door to remind Remus that they could miss the train.

I didn't want to see any of the Griffyndors on the Hogwarts Express, so I asked Xenophilius Lovegood and two girls from Ravenclaw if I could sit with them. Xenophilius was as strange as his name. He had long white hair and liked to talk about some things no one knew had existed. But I thought he was special because of that and there wasn't anything wrong with being special. My aunt always taught me to appreciate differences in people. The Ravenclaw girls – Andy and Jennifer – were as different as two girls could be. Andy looked like a boy with her short haircut, deft movements and a habit to walk pacing like a naughty boy. She preferred climbing trees to discussing clothes and reading "Witchypolitan". So did I. We liked to recite poetry to each other or make up some stories for the novels we would write if we were writers. We spent many hours walking along the lake and discussing all the possible twists of a plot that came to our minds. My stories usually were more dramatic and Andy would wrinkle her nose saying that I was no fun. Jennifer would nod in agreement. Jen was more responsible than two of us. She couldn't understand how a girl can behave like a boy or spend so much time making up stories and forgetting them the next day. She had long blond hair and large blue eyes. She looked like a doll and was almost as strict as Professor McGonagall sometimes. But we could always borrow notes from her which was a great benefit for me as I never could make my writing out and Jennifer's letters looked as they were printed.

While we were on the train, all four of us read books. It was a nice thing about Ravenclaws – you could talk to them, you could go for a walk to them and you could read with them. I enjoyed reading more when someone else sat by my side. My aunt always read with me and it was like a tradition – these reading evenings. Griffyndor girls became too bored after 20 minutes of reading. Lily was different, but she preferred reading alone. She preffered to do many things alone when it came to studying. Sometimes it seemed to me that she studied twice as hard as we did. Maybe, she didn't want people to think she was not as good as wizard-born students, but that was nonsense. Only Lucius and his friends could say something like that. Speaking of which...

The door to the compartment opened with a loud sound that made all of us вздрогнуть. Lucius just couldn't leave other students alone. He stood in the doorway looking at our faces and then at the covers of our books. Xenophilius read a book about invisible star-nose moles. No one, expect him, ever read about them. But Xenophilius was Xenophilius – he liked everything what people didn't know about or didn't even want to know about. That's why some Professors loved him and others hated when he mentiond something they had never heard about. Malfoy probably never seen a star-nose mole, so he snatched the book from Xenophilius' hands and started to read it aloud. He got bored at the second sentence and tore out a page from the book. Xenophilius gave a squeak, but didn´t stand up. The fright I felt when Malfoy and his edcort — Mulciber and Rosier came was superseded by anger. I wanted Malfoy to go away so badly, but my wand was in the bag and I couldn´t shout at him – he would only laugh me in the face. As my anger grew, Lucius turned his head towards Jennifer. He made a step closer to her and took her book too – it was something very girly. Malfoy burst out laughing and that was the last straw. I focused my eyes at him and felt all my anger to leave my mind and body. I could almost see it fly towards Malfoy's little figure. The next moment everyone made a cry when Lucious was threw by some force out from the compartment. He seemed frightened as hell. But he wasn't the only one. It happened again. I couldn't control it sometimes. Making magic without a wand – it is something that almost every wizard did once or twice, but in my case it happened too often and with too much consequinces. The only peopple who knew were my family and Professor Dumbledore. He visited my aunt once to talk about my magic. He wanted her to teach me how to control it so that I couldn't hurt other people. But I did anyway. How I almost hurt Malfoy now and I definitely scared him to death. He and his loyal fans disapperead in a second after the incident. Other children looked at each other with eyes wide open and couldn't understand where this magic had come from. I excused myself and spent 10 minutes outside our compartment trying to collect my thoughts and calm my mind. I hoped no one noticed my hands glow with bright light.


End file.
